Grave monuments which contain non-structural elements are well known to those skilled in the art. Thus, by way of illustration and not limitation, reference may be had to U.S. design Pat. No. 259,369 of Splendora (which discloses a transparent monument containing a decorative object within it), U.S. design Pat. No. 310,419 of Morvant (which discloses a permanent photographic memorial marker), and U.S. utility Pat. Nos. 3,938,286 of Mochinski (a grave marker comprised of a lucite block), 3,962,836 of Carnes et al. (a grave marker with a transparent cover), 4,058,940 of McBrayer (a monument marker comprised of a clear plastic outer laminate), 4,202,144 of Patterson (a cemetery monument), 4,227,325 of Whitford (a grave marker comprised of a cylindrical chamber within which is mounted a picture), 4,259,381 of Narita (an ornament for burial monuments which contains a transparent body), 4,304,076 of Splendora (a transparent monument), 4,337,109 of Narita (a process for preparing a burial ornament), 4,428,168 and 4,428,169 of Tomer (a permanent floral decoration for use on grave sites), 4,550,537 of Smith (a grave monument), and the like. The disclosure of each of these United States patents is hereby incorporated by reference into this patent application.
To the best of applicant's knowledge, very few of the prior art publications relating to monuments disclose monuments with one or more movable elements affixed to them. Disclosures of such monuments may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,455,772 of Miller (a monument comprised of a sliding transparent panel), 4,463,527 of Schlosser (a grave marker with a removable cover), and 5,014,472 of Svensson (a tombstone with a openable inscription plate).
None of the prior art references discloses a monument with a movable element which can, at the option of the visitor, display selected portions of a relatively large amount of text.
It is an object of this invention to provide a monument with a rotatable element.
It is another object of this invention to provide a monument with a movable element which can display a relatively large amount of text.
It is another object of this invention to provide a monument with an interactive movable element which requires a visitor to move such element to have all of its contents fully disclosed to him.
It is another object of this invention to provide a monument with a movable element, which contains a substantially large amount of usable surface area.